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Re: Ramgren
Thank you so much, Jim! This is what I suspected, but I couldn't figure out the "ram" component of the name. Google translate came up with "frame" but that didn't seem to make sense, like "paw". I haven't been able to trace my Ramgren line very far back, presumably because the family took this name in the 19th century. The swedes seem really great about record keeping - I wish there were a record of which families changed names and when.Thank you again for your help!
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Out of curiosity I searched for 'Ramsson" as a surname, and found that there is such a name. This raises the possibility that Ram is a forename, or perhaps, a familiar or diminutive form of a forename.
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This list of surname components give ram as a variant of ravn, meaning "raven".
https://www.nordicnames.de/wiki/Surname_Elements_R
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Wow, thank you so much for your help! So it may be Raven-branch - I like it. Now for the Björn side of the family... I've read that can be from a given name, a nickname, a place name, OR an ornamental name, so I'm sure I'll be back for help.Thank you again, and stay healthy!
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Björn means "bear" (a number of Germanic words have -n variants). It's a common element of dithematic names, but also occurs on it's own, as a nickname, and of course in place names. The Beo- in Beowulf is an Anglicized short form (in the poem Beowulf is a Geat, from Gottland), which creates a wordplay (it reads as bee-wolf, i.e. bear).p b f and v followed by n frequently become mn>n if the intervening vowel becomes unvoiced, so Rafn becomes Ram, *sopnus becomes somnus (but without the -n stem remains sopor, sopio etc.)
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You too, dear lady.
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